


She's a Gift

by rosettared



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Birthday, Comfort, F/M, Family, Fluff, Love Confessions, Post-Reveal Love Square, Pre-Relationship, adrien and marinette have been dancing around their feelings and alya and nino hate it, all four of them know each other's identities, mlsecretsanta2k18
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 21:10:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17169464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosettared/pseuds/rosettared
Summary: Adrien’s birthday is around the corner, but he isn’t exactly excited about it. He’s been hoping that this could finally be the year his father would dedicate the entire day just for him – so when he’s told that Gabriel will be away on the week of his birthday, Adrien’s lost all joy for the big day. Marinette is determined to help him find it again – saving the day is her forte, after all.





	She's a Gift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sariahsue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sariahsue/gifts).



> This is an ML Secret Santa Exchange present for @sariahsue on Tumblr and here on AO3, and I hope you all enjoy!

Things were far too calm for Adrien’s liking.

The superhero was perched atop the towers of the Notre Dame, dangling his legs from the top of the cathedral, his heartbeat finally steadying and his panting ceasing from all the running he had done on his way here. He wasn’t even supposed to be out, but he had hoped that a quick late-night patrol of his own would do him some good– for the city lights and the busy bustling to send buzzes to his brain, for the noises to fill his head with other thoughts.

Instead, it was quiet. The night air crisp and still, Parisians peaceful and safe in their homes, the Seine showing no signs of rippling. Not much was happening tonight, and Adrien hated it.

If he had wanted a silent night, he would have stayed home.

His ears perked at the sound of feet landing from behind him on the platform. He could only guess who would have found him on her turn for night patrol. “I didn’t think I’d see you here, Chat Noir,” Ladybug announced her arrival. 

He turned to face her, only offering her a half-smile and a two-fingered salute, then watched as she made her way over to him and took a seat beside him. He tried for a nonchalant demeanour and pretended not to notice how her eyebrows crinkled and her lips straightened in worry – but this was Ladybug. There was no fooling her, and there was nothing about him that he could possibly hide that she wouldn’t figure out.

And now that the wall of secret identities was knocked down, that couldn’t have been truer.

“What brings you here, My Lady?” Adrien prompted, breaking the eye contact to look over the river, unchanged from its stillness. Though he wished more was going on, Ladybug’s presence could just help distract him.

“Funny, I could ask you the same question,” she replied, following suit and staring down at the view before them. “I patrol Wednesday nights solo, remember? I didn’t think I’d have company.”

“Yeah?”

“I thought you’d be sitting around in front of your three desktops, studying for next week’s math test.”

“Ah, lest I evoke the wrath of the vengeful Mme. Mendeleiev for ‘distasteful derivatives?’”

“I can see it now: akuma wreaks havoc on the city of Paris, leaving burning marks of mathematical equations on the path she treads, targeting her one best student for failing the most important test of the semester!” Ladybug spoke, her tone firm and monotonous, not falling short of sounding like a reporter. “She will not stop until she has local buffoon Adrien Agreste in her clutches!”

“Hey!” he protested, lightly punching her arm.

“One can never be too careful with that woman,” she shrugged, and Adrien looked back at her to see her smile from their banter, only for it to quickly disappear. Now that she had his attention, she scooted closer to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, not once looking away. “Something’s bothering you, Adrien. Do you want to talk about it?”

_Adrien._

It had been three months since the two had revealed their true identities, but hearing Ladybug, _Marinette,_ say his real name never failed to give him butterflies every time. Though things were pretty awkward in the first week and they got a little distant, they found a way to reconcile, and after that their relationship had been stronger than ever.

It was funny, really – a year ago, they had just been good friends who shared the same classes, unaware that they had also spent every day protecting Paris from danger together, even crossing paths to rescue the other untransformed. They had even shared their troubles with each other without even realising it. They had been so close, yet so far.

Now it was like she was a different person, yet the same. The reveal had changed everything, and no longer could he see her the way he had before. He knew Marinette was Ladybug, and Ladybug was Marinette, but his brain couldn’t really process that. It felt too good to be true, as if he were in a beautiful dream and he was about to wake up at any moment. With his dumb luck, he couldn’t believe that the two most incredible women in his life were the same person.

Yet, here she was – right there by his side, silently watching, waiting for him to speak.

Adrien let out a resigned sigh, bringing his own clawed hand to hers, and gave a small smile. He supposed it was time to share, and he couldn’t possibly imagine sharing his thoughts with anyone else. “Well, I’m not sure if you know this, but… well, my birthday’s coming up on Friday and-”

“A-pshh, a-pfft, your what?” Ladybug jumped. “Oh it’s your birthday this Friday I had no idea I had absolutely  _no_ idea look at me I’m totally someone who did _not_ know your birthday was so soon and did _not_ have something planned for you no sirree!” Adrien couldn’t catch a single word from how fast she spoke, but maybe he wasn’t meant to. “I’m sorry, you were saying?”

“Anyway,” he proceeded. “Well, I’ve been thinking about my father. All year I’ve been hoping for some father-son quality time on my birthday. I thought maybe he’d suggest a change of pace from the three lame pens he used to get my every year. Although, he _did_ surprise me with that blue scarf last year.”

“Right, I remember,” she said. “Yes, the scarf. The blue one. From your father.”

Ladybug was acting a little odd, but perhaps he shouldn’t think anything of it.

“So, I come home from basketball training today, and then I see in the foyer my father at the top of the staircase with a couple luggage bags next to him. He tells me that he’ll be away for a couple weeks on some business trip to London, and that I am ‘expected’ to follow my schedule by the minute, as usual. He doesn’t even address that he’ll be missing my birthday, and now he’s gone, and…” Adrien didn’t realise how much tension he had on his shoulders until he felt Ladybug rub them away. She waited until he was more relaxed to retreat her hands to her lap.

“And now things just… suck,” he continued, shoulders slumped. “Shouldn’t have been so surprised, right? I mean, I’m no stranger to my father letting me down over and over again, but… never mind. It was stupid for me to hope. I didn’t want to deal with it, so I… I left my room and ran on the rooftops and ended up here. I was hoping for a bigger distraction, but things are too quiet here. Kinda makes me wish for an akuma to beat up right now.”

Ladybug chuckled. “Well, we’ve got school tomorrow, so maybe that’s not the best,” she joked.

“Kinda on me for daring to dream.” Adrien felt defeated. Maybe it was a bad idea to leave the house, after all. Hearing himself actually voice out his thoughts made him realise that he was just running away from his problems again. He took one last look at his polka-dotted partner before standing up and extending his trusty baton. “I’m sorry, I… I should go. I’ll leave you to your patrol. Goodnight, Lady-”

“Wait!” Ladybug was up on her feet and grabbed his hand, jerking him towards her and stopping him from finishing his goodbye. The force of her pull was enough to make him topple a little, but she was there to stop him from falling, getting a hold on his arms for support.

“Please don’t go,” she looked up at him, pleading. “You don’t have to. Being on patrol by myself gets pretty boring. And besides, things are too quiet, right? I’d really appreciate having you around.”

It was then that he noticed how _close_ she was to him, chest-to-chest and their arms snaked together, and at that very second, he couldn’t breathe. Once she realised the same, she took quite a step back from him, a dark red blooming on her cheeks and her hands kept to herself.

She brought a fist to her mouth and cleared her throat. “Adrien, stay. Please?” she asked once more, capturing him wholly in her bright blue eyes.

Who could say no to that?

“Okay,” he muttered, and he let her pull him back down to sit next to her again. He had his eyes on her hands, the ones he so desperately wanted to take in his own and rub his thumbs on the back of her palms, but he was hesitant. If there was some indication that she was too, he couldn’t see it. Knowing if she was as confused as he was would bring him ease but frustrate him at the same time.

Where did they stand?

“So…” she began, sounding unsure of what to say. “what are you gonna do now? For your birthday, I mean, not _right now_ kinda now, like, you’re just sitting here keeping me company because I asked you to, so obviously I know what you’re doing _now_ -now and-”

“Marinette,” Adrien stopped her. As weird as it was to hear his own name from her, it was just as weird to say hers. It definitely could use some getting used to. “You’re rambling again.”

She jerked her head towards him, and her eyes went wide. “Right! That’s right, I’m… I’m sorry.”

He said nothing as he observed her slowly breathe in, breathe out, and repeat for a while, watching as she regained her composure and allowed him room to speak. For the first time tonight, his lips turned up to a real smile – small, but genuine. She was so adorable, it drove him crazy. How did he not see who she really was?

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ll think of something. I’ve got Plagg, so I won’t completely be by myself. Nathalie and the Gorilla will still be around, so I can’t really plan anything big that won’t get past them. There hasn’t been a birthday bad enough that I couldn’t handle.”

Then he looked up at her again, her blue eyes big and full of emotion. If he was really honest, he wanted to spend the day with _her_ – he imagined them in her room, under the covers, watching Netflix, just spending quality time together like that. Maybe his birthday could be when he finally told her how he really felt.

Maybe he didn’t have to worry anymore.

But maybe it would be better if he actually asked her.

_What if I spent my birthday with you? Just the two of us,_ he wanted to say.

“Unless you’ve got something in mind for me?” was what he came out of his mouth instead. Ladybug was renowned for always having a plan, that was what made her such a great leader, so he supposed he could toy with the idea that she had one for him. He was intrigued with what she might have in store for him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she denied, lightly bumping his shoulder with her own, a playful smile clear as the light in her eyes. “All I know is that you are _not_ spending your birthday alone. The fact that you’ve had bad birthdays _at all_ is completely unacceptable! I won’t let that happen to anyone, especially my best friend.”

“I’m your best friend, huh?”

“Don’t tell Alya that.”

“So, you’re saying that fox got nothing on-”

“Ah-ah-ah! One more word and I’m telling Nino I took his place!”

Adrien squinted his eyes at her, eyebrows crossed. “How are you so sure?”

“Are you telling me that I’m _not_ your best friend?” she smirked. She was right, and she knew she was right, so it was pointless to come up with anything to deny that.

When she took his silence as acceptance (and defeat), she let the smirk fade and replaced it with another grin. “Just know that this will be the best birthday you’ve ever had.”

Adrien returned her smile. “I don’t know, last year’s akuma battle is gonna be pretty hard to beat.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes. “You mean when Nino forced everyone to party?”

“Hey, it got us trapped in that bubble,” he shrugged. “That was pretty good to me.”

“That was the one? How dare my memory fail me!” she cried, exaggerating her tone and throwing an arm over her forehead, then she quickly recovered with a wink. “Don’t you worry, _Chaton_ – if I had to, I’d akumatise the entire school if that’ll top your last birthday!”

_“Oh, dear Lord, please don’t.”_

He wasn’t sure if it was what he said, or if it was that he sounded a little horrified, because she threw her head back and absolutely _roared_ in laughter – loud and unrestricted, a hand to her stomach – and Adrien had never found her more captivating. “Whatever it is, I've got it under control.”

“I know. There’s nothing Super Marinette can’t do.”

“And don’t you forget it!” Ladybug swiped a finger quickly down his nose. “Just trust me, it’s gonna be great.”

* * *

“Alya, this is a disaster!”

Marinette paced back and forth in her living room, her hands at her pigtails, while she vented her frustrations out on the poor journalist. Alya could only sit on the white couch and wait as she walked around the coffee table and voiced her thoughts out loud. She should have expected this when Marinette invited her over to the bakery _the day before_ Adrien’s birthday.

“I thought I had it all planned out, but now I know I don’t!” Marinette erupted. Alya had grown familiar to her freak-outs, and it was rare when they weren’t revolved around Adrien. “He wanted a day with his dad and now his dad isn’t around and he’s super bummed about it! I think I cheered him up last night during my patrol when I found him on the Notre Dame, but I don’t know if I can be so sure! So I promised him the best birthday he’s ever had, but what could possibly be better than spending time with your dad? Adrien loves his dad and would do anything to be closer to him, and that’s what he wanted for his birthday! And I know he said he’ll like whatever I’ll plan, and I trust that he wouldn’t lie to me, but what if he’s just saying it to be polite? What if he _knows_ it’s gonna be bad, and he’s just trying to spare my feelings? Oh, God, I’m spiralling! What am I gonna do?”

She was hyperventilating, her breaths in step with her rapid heartbeat, and all rational thought were pushed to the back of her mind. It frustrated her even more when Alya didn’t say anything, but she took one look into her piercing gaze and tried to gain control. Alya pulled her down to the couch and led her to calm down, both her hands on hers. Marinette followed her – breathe in, hold, breathe out, repeat – for a few times until Alya decided she was relaxed. “You done spiralling?” Alya asked, her tone even and calm.

“Spiralling over,” Marinette reported.

This had become a standard Marinette-panic recovery procedure.

“That’s great!” a new voice chimed in. It was Tikki’s, who along with Trixx had been sitting on top of the TV watching everything unfold. The kwami had gotten much closer as they got more involved with both Alya’s and Marinette’s personal lives, offering whatever advice (questionable or not) they could offer. “That was a lot quicker than all your previous panic sessions! You’re really improving, Marinette!”

“Whoa, really?” Trixx asked. Trixx, too, had learned to be familiar with Marinette’s behaviour in times of anxiety, but had also become rather amused to watch it. “How long do these last?”

“Good few hours, at most, but let’s focus on Marinette, hmm?" Alya told her kwami.

The kwami of illusion crossed their arms and rolled their eyes. “Fine,” they said. “Just here to watch the show, so pretend we’re not even here!”

“Done,” Alya agreed, voice flat, then shifted to collectedness as she redirected her attention to her friend. “So, Marinette, what you’re saying is that Adrien told you his dad will be out of town tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Marinette nodded.

“And you promised Adrien you’d give him the best birthday ever?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re scared he’ll hate whatever you’ll plan because his dad won’t be there?”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” Alya repositioned herself, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin on her laced fingers. “Now, according to Nino, what are you that Gabriel Agreste is not?”

Her response was reflexive from listening to Nino constantly tell her so. “Fun.”

“Exactly. You have nothing to worry about,” Alya replied, leaning back in her seat. Marinette wasn’t quite sure where this conversation was heading. “Marinette, this is great! This means  _Monsieur Control Freak_ won’t be around telling Adrien what to do! You can plan whatever you want with no restrictions! The possibilities are endless!”

“Not quite,” Marinette pointed out. “His dad may be gone, but Nathalie and his bodyguard will still be around. And Adrien told me he specifically told him to follow his schedule _by the minute_.”

“Girl, those are nothing but strings we can pull,” Alya reassured. “Besides, I’m sure he’ll love whatever you planned. He trusts you, right? I can’t think of a single thing you could possibly do that he won’t like. You guys are best friends.”

Before Marinette could challenge that, Alya held a finger up. “Oh, don’t even try. It was only a matter of time before that fancy feline took my place. But for what it’s worth, there’s really no one else – besides _myself,_ of course – more qualified for the position. You two have been through so much together, sharing each other’s lives without even knowing it. And now that you guys know who you are, things should be easier for you. You have no more secrets, and your faith in each other is beyond admirable. I’m telling you, Marinette, you have nothing to worry about.”

Marinette supposed this was the time to tell her what she was _really_ worried about. “Actually, there is… one more thing,” she added. It was now or never, and Alya was the only person who could help her with what she was about to say. “I… I-I was thinking of telling Adrien the truth.”

Alya knitted her eyebrows in confusion. What could she possibly tell him that they didn’t already know? “… about?”

“… about my feelings for him.”

_“What?!”_ Alya boomed, quickly jumping to her feet and staring Marinette down. “You haven’t told him?!”

“It’s not that easy, Alya!” she countered. “Now that we know that he’s Chat Noir and I’m Ladybug, things have been so hard for me! I mean, the reveal’s made us better friends, but we’ve never even _talked_ about our feelings! I’ve rejected Chat Noir _twice,_ and I don’t think he handled it as well as we both thought, you know? What if he thinks I only like him because he’s Adrien? How do you think he’ll react then? He’ll hate me for the rest of his life!”

“Girl, are you even hearing yourself? Adrien would never hate you in a million years! That’s crazy!” Alya cried at the top of her lungs.

Then the front door swung open, revealing Tom and Sabine wearing worried expressions, and the two kwami quickly went into hiding. “We heard you girls fighting up here, it’s everything okay?” Tom asked the girls, he and his wife hesitantly standing by the door. “Don’t worry, we didn’t hear everything, just the last part.”

“Marinette hasn’t told Adrien she likes him!”

Her parents hesitated, momentarily confounded, and Marinette could feel their mood lift slightly. “Really?” Tom asked. “You haven’t?”

“Not sure if I can say I’m surprised,” Sabine continued. “You’ve always been an overthinker, Marinette.”

“Quite an understatement there, Mme. Cheng,” Alya noted, earning one painful nudge in the side.

Her parents walked through the threshold and approached the couch to sit next to her. The looks on their faces were no longer puzzled and stunned, but warm and encouraging, judging by the crinkle of their eyes and the upwards curves of their mouths. “You haven’t told him how you feel?” Her father wrapped an arm around her, and she shook her head. “Why is that, sweetie?”

Marinette breathed out a sigh, exasperated that her parents were now involved. “I don’t know, Papa,” she started. “We _are_ good friends, and we’ve gotten really close but… things have just been…” She paused, searching her mental lexicon for the best word that could possibly describe her relationship with the cat. “… _complicated.”_   

“Oh, honey,” her mother placed a hand over her heart. “It’s just that you’ve liked him so much for so long, I can’t imagine how things are for you now.”

Marinette first took a look at Alya, waiting for her to add her own comments, but it seemed like she wasn’t going to interfere for now, so maybe it was wise to talk to them. There was so much she wished she could tell them, because she was raised to share everything with them, but she held her tongue. Ladybug was a part of her life her parents could never know about.

“Well, let’s just say that we haven’t exactly had the most ideal situations,” were the words she settled for. Not lying, and not disclosing too much information. Having a double-life made her a master at half-truths.

Tom and Sabine looked at each other for a moment, chuckling to themselves as if they were sharing the same thoughts, then they looked back at her and smiled, their fingers now intertwined. “Marinette, have we told you how we got together?” Tom asked.

“Yeah, didn’t you hide the ring in André’s ice cream?”

“No, no, that was how we got _engaged,”_ he corrected. “I meant the very first time I asked your mother out on a date.”

Oh.

This was a story she had _not_ heard before, so Marinette shook her head to accept their offer of sharing it.

“It was five years before I proposed,” Tom began. “Your mother and I had gone to high school together, much like you and Adrien. We didn’t have many mutual friends, and we mostly ran in different circles.”

“Your father was the very popular school athlete, while I was the lowly Asian immigrant new kid,” Sabine further stated. “Many students didn’t really like me. You can imagine how things were back then, hmm?”

She definitely could. Her mother may not have frowned as she said those horrible words, but the idea that she wasn’t accepted by other people just for being Asian was heart-wrenching – like a wooden dagger pierced at her chest and twisted slowly and painfully. She couldn’t be more grateful that things were much different now.

“Anyway, so it was our last year of high school. At this point, I had a really big crush on your mother. I wanted to ask her out before we graduated, so I spent the whole year trying to get the courage to do that, but I could never find time alone with her. I couldn’t even ask anyone for help, because I kept my feelings for her a secret. No one, not even my best friend, knew about it because I was worried that they might give her even more trouble. I couldn’t do that to her.

“Then one fateful day, we went on a field trip to _Tour Montparnasse_. We were about to leave for lunch, but your mother and I were the last two kids in the group, way behind everyone else. Everyone had already gone down, but they had to wait for us. We waited for the lift, and we got inside, and the whole time I was just prepping myself to do it, to ask her on a date. We were only a few floors down when suddenly, _boom!_ The power went out, and the lift stopped. We tried calling for help, but until they came, we were all alone. I was _freaking out.”_

Well, that explained where she inherited it all from.

“But then I stopped and started to think. It was just me and your mother in that lift. Nobody else was there to disapprove of my feelings for her – and even if they were, I stopped worrying about what other people thought. It wasn’t the most ideal situation, but I made the most of it. So, I finally got the guts to ask her out. But when she didn’t say anything at first, my brain went to panic-mode. I started thinking of all the possible things she could say to turn me down.”

“Then I said yes,” Sabine continued. “And even though there was no power, your father’s smile was the brightest thing I’d ever seen that day. When we walked out of that lift, all the other students stared at us like we were crazy, and later they’d tell us that we would never work, but we didn’t care. We’ve been together ever since.”

“Marinette,” Tom hugged her closer to his side. “If you keep waiting for the perfect moment, you might just miss your chance. There’s no such thing as a perfect moment, but even the least ideal situations can give you great opportunities. You gotta hold it by the reins and take control of the situation, no matter how difficult things are.”

Then both of them stood up, and Marinette only watched as her mother planted a kiss on the top of her head. She was incredibly moved by their story, but she was paralysed in her seat. She was rendered speechless. “I know you and Adrien will work things out together. Good luck, honey,” Sabine wished her in farewell, then she and Tom walked out of the room and shut the door behind them.

Now it was just her, Alya, and the two kwami who reappeared on the coffee table. Nothing was spoken between the four for a few long moments, until Alya decided to break the pregnant silence. “You know, I have a great less-than-ideal situation myself.”

Oh, boy. She knew exactly what Alya was talking about.

“I had always seen Nino as a brother,” Alya said, obviously poking fun at her. “But then one day at the zoo, there was an akuma attack! The two of us were running for our lives, but then _somebody_ grabbed us both and locked us up in a cage!”

“Heheh, whoops...” Marinette chuckled nervously.

Alya then gave her a friendly punch on the arm. “Bygones, huh? If you had never done that, then Nino and I wouldn’t have found each other like we did. It was… a pretty weird situation to be in, being trapped in an empty gorilla habitat until the fight was over, but I’m glad it happened. Thanks, LB.”

Marinette’s smile went wide, appreciative and grateful. “Well, I’m glad I could help.”

“And I’m glad that _I_ can help _you._ Other than because I’m the _greatest_ friend ever,” Marinette rolled her eyes and Alya grinned from cheek to cheek. “I am going to pay you back for what you did for me and Nino. I’m gonna help you plan Adrien’s birthday party and help you confess to him.”

“Really? Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Alya!” Marinette pulled her into a tight hug, which she gladly returned with a couple pats on the back. When she pulled away from the embrace, Marinette grew more excited to share with her. “Come on! I’ll tell you what I’ve got planned!”

“Oh, not yet,” Alya stopped her. “First, you’ve got to tell me absolutely _everything_ that’s happened between you and Adrien. Every single detail.” 


End file.
